Want to energize your home-based business? Free the chi

Feng Shui tips for good energy in your home office

It’s that time of year again! You can’t help but notice new beginnings happening right outside your window. It’s also when the sun starts shining brightly again and you start noticing dust all around the house and smudges on the windows. Nobody understands this dirt/dust-induced distraction better than those of us who work from home.

Spring cleaning is a great time to take beautification of your space a step further and follow Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese approach for bringing harmony to space. Whether you would like to get on track with personal or business goals, improve your work-life balance, or simply raise the vibrations of the spaces where you live and work, you should consider lessons from Feng Shui.

What is the ancient Chinese secret, “Feng Shui,” and how does it relate to work performance?

Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy that originated somewhere around 3,000 years ago and has to do with situating your furniture so that a room feels good. It’s all about the flow of chi through the spaces of your living environments. When chi is blocked (by too much clutter, misplaced furniture and even bad architecture), space can feel stagnant and zap your energy.

Feng Shui for goals

Do you also know you can use Feng Shui to create a mentality of abundance, health and wellbeing that helps you achieve more? Many people swear by Feng Shui as a method for overcoming obstacles, achieving happiness and even growing their businesses or careers.

“Feng Shui simply is one of the fastest ways I can help a person understand what’s happening in their subconscious mind and possibly keeping them from achieving their goals or feeling more happiness, for instance,” said Ken Lauher, New York City Feng Shui consultant.

“It’s about looking at someone’s living and working spaces and then manipulating what’s going on in the space so they can change their thought processes,” Lauher said.

“What I do comes down to understanding human behavior and helping a person get back into alignment with their true self,” he said.

Four Feng Shui tips to use in your office right now if you work from home

There are many aspects to strive for when updating a space to Feng Shui perfection. Here are the top four Feng Shui tips most home-based businesses can start with to see the biggest immediate impact:

1. Situate your desk properly. Experts agree that situating your desk according to the location of the entry to your office is one of the most critical for the good energy flow that is central in Feng Shui. If possible, sit behind your desk so that you are facing the door. Other positions will cause anxiety when you aren’t able to see the door or who may be entering and exiting.

2. Put your office in a dedicated space. If at all possible, have an office in a room of its own. If that’s not doable, find a corner or nook in another room you can make all your own and possibly even delineate with a screen or curtain.

3. Clear the clutter. Most of us know how we feel in a cluttered space versus an area free of unnecessary items. Feng Shui practitioners say that clutter “represents postponed decisions and inability to move forward.” Or more simply, it blocks energy flow (chi). Once you’ve cleared clutter, commit to taking time daily—as few as 10 or 15 minutes—to keep it that way.

If the thought of clearing the clutter feels overwhelming, you may like the guidance Marie Kondo gives in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and on her Netflix series, Tidying up with Marie Kondo. Her method is rooted in the advice to “keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy.”

4. Put up artwork. When it comes to art for the space where you want to do your best work, not only should you love it but also you should find pieces reflecting the kind of life you want to enjoy. Feng Shui is all about symbolism and with some research, you’ll find out how color and subject matter in your artwork can enhance the feeling of your space.

Enjoy your journey to finding your chi

Those highlights will be enough to get you started on your spring cleaning and a new beginning. If you want to take it further, there is plenty more to do in your office, including focusing on your desk.

“Feng Shui is something I love to do for several reasons,” said Rose Garbien, a Connecticut-based Feng Shui consultant. “My clients who are seeking more abundance in their business or career find Feng Shui to be an effective approach in unblocking energy flow so all of that can come into their lives,” Garbien said.

Do you have questions about Feng Shui? Do you have pictures to show what you’ve done or questions about your home office or other space? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I might be able to find out for you and include in a future article.

Liveops works with customer service professionals who work in the comfort and Feng Shui serenity of their home offices.